One of the 20th century's main features was the large movements of people abandoning their places of origin for economic, political and social reasons. Migration-fostering conditions, like the search for sufficient means of subsistence, escaping from armed conflict and political and religious persecution, are intensified by economic crises and the advent of authoritarian Governments. In the host countries, emigrants, exiles and refugees form associations, publish periodicals, hold commemorations and foster socialisation tools, which make them a group with a national identity and/or a specific political positioning. Concomitantly, they undergo acculturation, as a result of their inevitable adjustment to the new reality, translated into the activities they perform and the structure of the relations they keep with the host country.

The European palaces established more than mere residences of monarchs, princes, cardinals, aristocrats and bourgeois. They were centers of power, solid social and political symbols, and also production centers for culture, arts and science. On the other hand, they played a fundamental role by motivating the renovation and expansion of cities. In a broad sense, we can consider the palace as a center that marked not only the inner spaces, but also its surroundings. Starting from this premise and taking the opportunity of the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the construction of the so called Palácio de D. Manuel in Évora, this is the ideal context for organizing this international conference.

Merchants, farmers, jurists, clerks in large institutions, secretaries, independent landowners, local elites and highly sought master craftsmen, among many others, are individuals with an ambiguous social status. Looking at who was not born exactly noble, nor exactly commoner, but stood on the border between one world and the other, is one of the goals of this initiative. As part of a project developed in Portugal focusing on the Holy Office’s familiaturas, it will be held on September 16 and 17, 2015, a workshop at Escuela Española de Historia and Archaeological in Rome. Our aim is to select a total of 8 applicants, that will be joined by 4 guest speakers, for a joint reflection on the dynamics and profiles of ‘intermediate groups’, as well as on the methodologies for their study in Early Modern Times.